Trench art 'forged in fire, blood and destruction'

Thursday

Considering his military background, it is no surprise Peter Harvell prefers collecting art made from artillery shells and bayonets to paintings of pastel pansies or Impressionist haystacks.

Considering his military background, it is no surprise Peter Harvell prefers collecting art made from artillery shells and bayonets to paintings of pastel pansies or Impressionist haystacks.

Framingham's director of Veterans Services, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, has acquired an extensive collection of "trench art" consisting of war munitions and material fashioned into art by combatants from the Civil War to the ongoing war against terror.

At a packed presentation Friday at the Callahan Senior Center, Harvell showed and explained the history of his art from World War I German "Frankenstein" helmets to chocolate tins, from Japanese fishing buoys to a badge from the Tailhook Association featuring Bart Simpson.

Citing research by author Jane A. Kimball, he said trench art generally shares several fundamental characteristics. They are:

Souvenirs collected by soldiers and others during war and modified to serve as a remembrance. Souvenirs made by combatants during war. Souvenirs made for sale by soldiers, civilians or prisoners. Mementos made by convalescing soldiers. Souvenirs made for tourists. Post-war souvenirs manufactured commercially in trench art style.

For Harvell, "trench art (is) art forged in fire, blood and destruction to honor the courage, duty and sacrifice of those who would possess it."

Growing up in Lexington, a 12-year-old Harvell began collecting military artifacts that would come to be known as trench art after his grandfather gave him a piece of an historic elm tree, cut down because it was dying, under which George Washington took command of the Continental Army on July 3, 1775.

Harvell attended Boston College as part of the ROTC program and majored in history before going on active duty in 1974.

For an hour, he explained the origins and evolution of trench art, and showed 70 audience members remarkably crafted, exotic and poignant artifacts, such as a crucifix forged from bayonets, "bead snakes" made by Turkish prisoners to sell to their guards and rare first-hand accounts written by the first Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) frogmen who went ashore in Japan at the end of World War II.

"Trench art is universal," said Harvell, who served from 1974 to 1997 in the U.S. Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets. "I like this stuff because it talks to me."

Harvell's art also spoke to several veterans in the audience.

Attending with his wife, Thelma, World War II veteran Warren Buzzell described the objects on display as "real works of art."

"I enjoyed the whole show," said the Framingham resident who served in northern Italy with the U.S. Medical Corps. "That's the first time I ever saw anything like that in person."

Buzzell, 81, said he was amazed to see the snakes made from beads by Turkish prisoners of war that were sold to their British guards.

Buzzell enlisted in the Army as a teenager. After WWII, he studied art on the GI Bill and worked in the Dennison Company's art department until retiring in 1990.

"The thing that really struck me was the crucifix made out of bayonets," he said. "My God, was I surprised by the quality of the stuff!"

Displaying that piece, Harvell told the audience, "You can imagine how conflicted the person who made this must have been to make a religious object from a bayonet."

For this show, audience member Herbert Jordan of Framingham loaned Harvell a small but intriguing war artifact passed on to him from his wife's uncle who had served in Germany.

A U.S. Navy quartermaster stationed in Shanghai, China, after WWII, the 80-year-old Framingham resident said his in-law had given him a German mark note autographed by popular entertainers Jack Benny and Ingrid Bergman following a USO show.

His wife, Marjorie Jordan, while working as historian of the First Baptist Church, preserved a 1945 newsletter listing 211 Framingham residents, including his four cousins, serving in the military in 1945.

"I really enjoyed (Harvell's) show. I'd never thought so many of the things from the war would now be considered a form of trench art," said the retired house painter.

Unknown artisans had fashioned several of the most striking objects on display from military objects into something entirely different.

Harvell differentiated between the hundreds of military patches and badges he owns and genuine "real trench art" made from scrap material by people caught up in the conflict.

For example, he showed model ammunition trains that had been made from German 88-millimeter shells. And he said his most unique piece was a clock constructed from an 18-inch segment of a large artillery shell fired from a cannon fixed atop a railroad car.

Harvell pointed out some political and military leaders gave out their own trench art for self-serving reasons. For example, he said, German Crown Prince Wilhelm distributed pipes decorated with his picture at Christmas.

Harvell spends his spare time searching for trench art at flea markets and antique shops. He said the apogee for trench art was World War I, because long stalemates between offensives gave troops the time to transform debris into art.

During WWII, less trench art was produced, he said, because frequent scrap drives for brass and steel deprived military artists of their chief material and "more fluid" campaigns provided less time for creative leisure.

Although owning scores of war-related objects, Harvell cited two pieces as having special personal meaning for him.

The first was a diving knife carried by Sudbury resident Don Pierce, who served with a UDT unit that took part in the atomic tests at the Bikini Atoll after WWII.

Belonging to Harvell, the second is the figure of a firefighter holding a U.S. flag atop two pieces of concrete from the World Trade Center.

"Many people will look at it and not 'get' it," said Harvell. "But it is my daily reminder that the global war on terror is real and that our troops need all the support they can get to win it."

The MetroWest Daily News

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.